Set up a welcome sequence

A sequence is an ordered series of emails sent automatically—the classic use is a welcome series introducing new readers to you and your books. They live under your audience's Automations.

Building one

Create a sequence, pick its trigger, and write the emails with a delay before each one:

• When someone subscribes via a form—fires when someone signs up through that form (after confirmation, if it's double opt-in)
• When a tag is added—fires the moment that tag is added to a reader, including by an integration or a one-click tag link
• When a reader is added to a group
• On a date a reader gave (birthday, anniversary…)—covered under On a reader's date
• Manually (I enroll readers myself)—you enroll readers from their subscriber page

Then activate it. New readers matching the trigger start receiving the series.

Each email starts in the writer. Try block layout on that step switches to the same canvas a campaign uses—columns, buttons, spacers, and the rest. Back to the writer returns to the text editor. An email you do not switch stays in the writer.

To hand out free books from an email, tick them under Deliver books with this email on that step — several at once is fine — and put {{magnet.download}} in the body. Preview shows each book's title on its button. Leave the boxes empty on a form-triggered sequence and the tag uses the form's bundle instead.

Good to know

• A form, tag, or group starts each reader once. Signing up through the same form twice doesn't restart the series. Enroll a segment can start a finished reader again only if Allow segment re-entry is on.
• Existing readers aren't swept in when you activate—triggers fire on new events, so your long-time subscribers won't suddenly get your welcome email. Want some of them in it anyway? See the next section.
• Duplicate to make a variant. Every sequence's row on the Automations list has a Duplicate button—the copy arrives as a draft with the same emails, timing, trigger, and branches, enrolled in by nobody until you activate it. Handy for seasonal variants of a welcome series, or trying a different version without touching the one that's running.
• Pausing freezes everyone where they are—including emails already queued for delivery, which are held with the sequence. Reactivating resumes everyone and releases the held emails, using the latest content—so pausing to fix a typo works exactly the way you'd hope.
• A reader who unsubscribes mid-sequence exits immediately, wherever they were.
• Start on many tags. Under the trigger, + Add another start adds another tag, form, group, or date that begins the sequence—up to 100 starts, handy when each freebie has its own tag. A reader who qualifies a second way later isn't started again.
• Skip readers by tag. Under the trigger, Don't start for readers who have any of these tags keeps anyone with one of those tags from beginning the sequence—however they come in: a tag, a form, a group, a date, Enroll a segment, a CSV import, or enrolling one reader yourself. Put your "onboarded" tag here and finished readers never get onboarding twice. Readers already partway through aren't taken out by this list.
• Chain sequences with a tag step. Adding a tag here can start another sequence that starts on that tag—like a welcome that hands readers on to your onboarding. It only fires when the reader didn't already have the tag, each reader still starts each sequence once, and a sequence can never restart itself or loop back through a chain.
• Stop readers by tag. Stop this sequence if the reader gets any of these tags is checked before every email, including for readers already partway through. A reader with one of those tags leaves this sequence before their next email. It isn't an unsubscribe: they stay on your list, and their other sequences keep going.
• Remove one reader from one sequence. On their subscriber page, an admin or the account owner can press Remove on an active or paused run. That exits only that automation and skips emails still queued for it. They stay subscribed, and every other sequence keeps going.

Putting existing readers into a sequence

Triggers only watch for new events, so readers who already carry the tag—or who came in through an import—need to be enrolled deliberately. Three ways:

• One reader: open their subscriber page and enroll them from there.
• A batch: build a segment that matches the readers you mean (for example, has tag "Spring Giveaway"), then open the sequence and use Enroll a segment. It shows you exactly how many match before anything happens, and one click enrolls them all.
• On CSV import: on Subscribers → Import, pick the active automation when you map the file. Optional Pace new enrollments uses the same pacing as on the sequence so a large CSV does not wake every welcome at once.

This is how you'd start a giveaway list on its own welcome series, or begin a re-engagement series for readers who've gone quiet. The sequence must be active first, and unsubscribed or suppressed readers are excluded automatically. With Allow segment re-entry off (the default), nobody is enrolled twice—re-running the same enrollment skips everyone already in. Turn it on when a finished or exited reader should start a new day's wave on the same sequence, once per calendar day (US Eastern). Anyone already going through it is skipped. Tag, form, and group starts stay once-ever either way.

On a reader's date

Choose the trigger On a date a reader gave (birthday, anniversary…). It needs a Date field—create it under Subscribers → Fields (the audiences guide covers types). Then set:

• how many days before, on the day, or after
• Every year (a birthday) or Once (a book birthday)
• the hour, in US Eastern time

A February 29 birthday is treated as February 28 in other years.

Wait until a date is a step for someone already in the sequence. It holds them until their own date, with the same choices. If they have no value, pick Continue to the next step or Leave the automation.

Pace a big start

Pace new enrollments sits on the sequence, off until you tick it. When it's on, group joins, tag adds, and Enroll a segment start at the rate you set—between 10 and 500 new enrollments per hour—so a big import doesn't send every first email in the same hour. The CSV import wizard offers the same checkbox when you enroll into an automation at import time. Form signups still start right away, one reader at a time.

Unsubscribe from the list

+ Unsubscribe adds a step labeled Unsubscribe from list. It does the same thing as the reader clicking unsubscribe in an email: they stop receiving mail, and the automation cannot undo it. The contact stays—nothing is deleted. Add it only after a wait and a branch that checks for real human engagement. Machine opens do not count.